Vital Signs

New exhibit of young photographers at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY. (photo by Chris McCaw)

My photography Mecca is located in Rochester NY. Not the city itself or Kodak but the George Eastman House Museum of Photography. In this temple of imagery artists are honored to be hung on the wall. As this museum often pays tribute to photographers who have achieved the pinnacle of their success they also recognize emerging photographers.

From July 2 through October 9, the Museum will exhibit Vital Signs, an international selection of young and emerging photographers who survey the world they inhabit and show us what they see in distinctively personal visual vocabularies. The exhibition ranges from the classic black-and-white documentary images of Canadian Louie Palu to the fantastical fabrications of American Lori Nix and the moody Hopper-esque evocations of Astrid Kruse-Jensen of Denmark.

“Every photograph is both a trace of the real and an interpretation of it,” says Curator of Photographs Alison Nordstrom. “The intent of this exhibition is to show the wide variety of ways by which the look of the world can be presented, while showcasing the work of some of the most innovative and idiosyncratic young artists I have come to know in the last few years. It is unusual to combine straight photography with constructions and conceptual work, but what these artists share is a determination to reflect their environments as they understand them, and, despite their different visual languages, to show a passionate concern for our current circumstances that belies the stereotypes of cool and distant youth.” During the exhibition, museum visitors will have the opportunity to identify the photographs in the exhibition they most wish to see added to the Museum’s permanent collection.

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